Dissecting the 2021 elections: Messaging wars

Virginia shifted solidly to the right

“The mind is divided into parts, like a rider [controlled processes or consciousness] on an elephant [automatic processes or unconsciousness]. The rider evolved to serve the elephant. . . . . intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second. Therefore, if you want to change someone’s mind about a moral or political issue, talk to the elephant first.

Republicans understand moral psychology. Democrats don’t. Republicans have long understood that the elephant is in charge of political behavior, not the rider, and they know how elephants work. Their slogans, political commercials and speeches go straight for the gut .... Republicans don’t just aim to cause fear, as some Democrats charge. They trigger the full range of intuitions described by Moral Foundations Theory.” -- psychologist Johnathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, 2012

An article, Rough Night for Democrats Exposes the Party’s Weakness, in the New York Times analyzes the situation the Democrats are in. The NYT writes:

Less than a year after taking power in Washington, the party faces a grim immediate future, struggling to energize voters without a presidential foil and losing messaging wars to Republicans.

“The Democrats need to take a serious look at how we chose to engage with the Trump narrative,” said Dan Sena, a Democratic strategist who helped the party win the House in 2018. “This was an election where the Democrats did not lean into their accomplishments either in Virginia or nationally. And as we look to 2022, we’re going to have to ask some hard questions about whether that’s the right strategy.”

Perhaps most strikingly, the crushing setbacks for Democrats in heavily suburban Virginia and New Jersey hinted at a conservative-stoked backlash to the changing mores around race and identity championed by the party, as Republicans relentlessly sought to turn schools into the next front in the country’s culture wars.  

With their focus on “parental rights” — a catchall rallying cry capturing conservative outrage over mask mandates, vaccination requirements, transgender rights and how the history of racism is taught — Republicans found an issue that energized their voters, uniting the white grievance politics of the Trump base with broader anger over schooling during the pandemic.  

By promising at nearly every campaign stop to ban critical race theory, an advanced academic concept not taught in Virginia schools, Mr. Youngkin resurrected Republican race-baiting tactics in a state that once served as the capital of the Confederacy.

Critical race theory is not taught in Virginia public schools, but that was irrelevant. Voters wanted to make sure it was stamped out even though it wasn’t there at all. Once again, dark free speech clearly shows its awesome power. Once again, Republican messaging went straight to the gut and dealt a damaging blow to Democrats.

Questions: 

1. Do Democrats need to improve their messaging?

2. What else do they need to start doing or do better, e.g., start doing DINO hunts to get rid of . . . . who or what?